1. Field of the Invention
The invention described herein relates to video recording.
2. Background Art
Set-top boxes are now commonly used to allow television viewers the opportunity to control both what they view and how they view it. Some set-top boxes now support video cassette recorder (VCR)-like functions. Such functions are sometimes known as personal video recording (PVR) features. These functions include the recording of video, the creation and saving of viewer preferences, and the manipulation of live television. The latter permits a user to pause, rewind, view an instant replay, and view a replay in slow motion, for example.
To implement PVR features, video streams are typically recorded on a video memory medium such as a hard disk drive for subsequent playback. This is illustrated in FIG. 1. Hard disk 110 is used to record video information. Hard disk 110 includes integrated drive electronics (IDE) 120. IDE 120 is a hardware interface used to connect a peripheral device (i.e., hard disk 110) to external logic. In the system of FIG. 1, hard disk 110 is connected, via IDE 120, to set-top box logic 130. Set-top box logic 130 decodes a cable signal and accepts other signals corresponding to user inputs. Set-top box logic can be implemented as one or more integrated circuits. Note that information passing between set-top box logic 130 and IDE 120 typically passes through a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus 140.
This arrangement is both complex and inefficient. IDE 120 is collocated with hard disk 110, remote from set-top box logic and communications between IDE 120 and set-top box logic 130 necessarily pass through PCI bus 140. Hence there is a need for a system wherein set-top box logic and a hard disk can communicate using a minimum number of components, so as to simplify and improve the efficiency of set-top box operations.